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The Gecko Engine emulates the IE API to some degree. I would opt ( from my point also just a guess ) for IE integration though. Would not be the first game which does this ( and the others I know for sure that they tie into IE as it's stated by the developer ). How much this is a problem though is another question. Wine can emulate it to some degree so it should not be fatal.

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Interestingly, Wine uses a customised gecko engine for their IE implementation and it works, more or less, with Steam. Not sure exactly which side of the argument that ties into, but it's interesting nonetheless.

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Like Svartalf pointed out, I guessed it based on the usage thereof. Although I think I made an educated guess, I am not going to defend it, because he is right. I don't know for sure, and I shouldn't be part of a rumor machine. Sorry for the trouble lads.

It's all good. I just don't want a batch of misinformation going about all over the place. Each of us makes educated guesses when we don't have the info in hand to prove pro/con. I've my own bits of info and it's because of the info I do have and my educated guess that I'm sitting on the fence- I'll believe pro/con when I see proof that it exists or conclusive proof that it doesn't. And Gabe's "hatred" for Linux doesn't count as a con...

It's not woven, Steam just uses IE to browse and show webpages. Impulse client does that too. I suppose a few 100s code changes could correct that problem.

I think IE is also used for the in game overlay/downloads/friends list

Like Svartalf pointed out, I guessed it based on the usage thereof. Although I think I made an educated guess, I am not going to defend it, because he is right. I don't know for sure, and I shouldn't be part of a rumor machine. Sorry for the trouble lads.

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I am not convinced really. No offense of course Svartalf, you know you way around the industry way better then me/most of us. But Steam is thoroughly woven with Internet Explorer. A Linux/mac version would require a lot of rewriting.

The explicit choice for IE also makes me think they never wanted their shop to be cross platform. Any programmer with a bit of foresight would have known that choosing IE would limit that possibility.

Also, I am suspecting Steam to be riddled with bad code. It has the responsiveness of looking at a web page using less then 56kbps. Linux doesn't respond that well on bad code as Windows does so they'll have to clean that up aswell.

Well, in all fairness they probably just went with what the most popular browser at the time. A similar digital download client like Impulse from Stardock works only with IE too. And coincidentally, it's as slow if not more than steam is to browse a web page.

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I am not convinced really. No offense of course Svartalf, you know you way around the industry way better then me/most of us. But Steam is thoroughly woven with Internet Explorer. A Linux/mac version would require a lot of rewriting.

How do you KNOW how it's woven in or not? Do you have source code access to show that it is or is it just a supposition based upon your usage thereof?

For the record, many, many, many people still falsely presume that since it' uses DirectX that a game can't be ported, especially if it uses DX10- which is largely incorrect as a statement.

Having said this, I don't know either way what's going to go down. But we don't need people inventing things either way.

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He may hate Linux, but if the guys holding the purse strings tell him to do a Linux version, he'll bitch and moan- and then do a Linux version of Steam and/or port Source. Not that this has or will transpire that way.

I am not convinced really. No offense of course Svartalf, you know you way around the industry way better then me/most of us. But Steam is thoroughly woven with Internet Explorer. A Linux/mac version would require a lot of rewriting.

The explicit choice for IE also makes me think they never wanted their shop to be cross platform. Any programmer with a bit of foresight would have known that choosing IE would limit that possibility.

Also, I am suspecting Steam to be riddled with bad code. It has the responsiveness of looking at a web page using less then 56kbps. Linux doesn't respond that well on bad code as Windows does so they'll have to clean that up aswell.

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I doubt Caster being on steam means steam itself will be on linux. Gabe just hates linux, he is an ex microsoft employee, and he made his fortune with windows after all.

He may hate Linux, but if the guys holding the purse strings tell him to do a Linux version, he'll bitch and moan- and then do a Linux version of Steam and/or port Source. Not that this has or will transpire that way.